Al Qaeda targeting Christians again

'Sunni Islamist insurgents such as al Qaeda have long targeted Christians, Yazidis, Shabaks, and other Iraqi minorities, as well as majority Shi'ites, whom they consider heretics. Christians number an estimated 750,000 in Iraq, a small minority in a country of 28 million.

Al Qaeda has vowed to use "military means" to derail the national ballot next month, which it sees as a farce to ensure Shi'ite domination of Sunnis.

Targeting Christians is an effective way to highlight the shortcomings of Iraq's security forces, given the media attention that attacks against Christians attract. Iraqi Muslims are killed in much greater numbers.'

Tehran and Damascus backing Allawi?

Interesting developments: "Damascus and Tehran have thrown their weight behind Iyad Allawi to unseat Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the March elections, sources said Wednesday."

Thanks Montrose Toast

Cultures can change

'Why should we care when we’re leaving? Quite simply, so much of the turmoil in the region was stoked over the years by Saddam’s Iraq and Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, both financed by billions in oil revenues. If, over time, a decent democratizing regime could emerge in Iraq and a similar one in Iran — so that oil wealth was funding reasonably decent regimes rather than retrograde ones — the whole Middle East would be different.

The odds, though, remain very long. In the end, it will come back to that nagging question of politics versus culture. Personally, I’m a believer in the argument Lawrence Harrison makes in his book “The Central Liberal Truth” — culture matters, a lot more than we think, but cultures can change, a lot more than we expect. But such change takes time, leadership and often pain. Which is why, I suspect, Iraqis will surprise us — for good and for ill — a lot more before they finally answer the question: Who are we and how do we want to live together?' --Thomas Friedman

Hamas founder's son worked for Shin Bet

"The son of a leading Hamas figure, who famously converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Shin Bet security service's most valuable source in the militant organization's leadership, Haaretz has learned."

As the KABOBfest continues...

...and as Arab Americans are angered by the assassination of a Hamas weapons buyer in a Dubai hotel,

A series of bombings, beheadings and shootings rippled through Iraq on Monday, leaving at least 23 people dead — including 9 children — and intensifying concern about a spike in violence with less than two weeks until national elections.

Authorities detected no discernible pattern to the violence, with rockets exploding in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, car bombings aimed at government buildings, assassinations of security officers and government officials and the killings of two families in their homes in Baghdad.

The slayings of the families was reminiscent of the attacks common during the height of the bloodletting between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq a few years ago.

In the largely Shiite town of Madaen, south of Baghdad, a gang of gunmen stormed a home of a family and killed all eight people there, including six children.

“The criminals have beheaded some of the victims,” according to a brief statement from Baghdad Operations Command.

Beheading is considered a trademark of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely domestic insurgent group with some foreign leaders created in the aftermath of the American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003. But the Iraqi authorities gave no indication as to the motive behind the attack.

In another Shiite district in Baghdad, a mother and her three children were gunned down in the middle of the night, according to government officials.

Operation New Dawn starts Sept. 1

'The U.S. military mission in Iraq will soon be getting a name change.

As of Sept. 1, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" becomes "Operation New Dawn."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a memo Wednesday that the name change—which is to immediately follow the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq—will send a strong signal that American forces have a new mission. He also said it reinforces the U.S. commitment to honor its security agreement with Iraq and recognizes "our evolving relationship" with the government there.'

Who pulverized the Iraqi state?

"Seven years after the US invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein's government and pulverized the Iraqi state, voters will go to the polls on March 7 in an election that most Iraqis hope will continue their country's uneven progress toward political stability." --ROBERT DREYFUSS

Evidently Mr. Dreyfuss does not realize that the Iraqi state had been pulverized by Saddam's regime throughout the 80s and 90s and that much of the pulverization during the last seven years has been caused by hardcore Baathists and their tools in Al Qaeda. Just three weeks ago three Baghdad hotels were pulverized by an arm of Al Qaeda. I suppose in the mind of Mr. Dreyfuss (and certainly many an Arab), those bombings can be blamed on the US invasion.